The company have made a further approach with regard to electronic checking of driver licenses. On giving consideration to this approach from the company the General Grades Committee have noted and adopted the following resolution of their Health and Safety Sub-committee:

We note the correspondence on file from the company and re-iterate our previous Decision – G.1436, 28th August 2014. Branches and Regional Councils be advised.

G.1436, 28th August 2014 stated:

Following examination of the latest legal advice we note that there is no legal obligation on our Network Rail members to give consent to a third party electronically holding their driving licence details.

We reiterate our previous position, that the current system of our members annually submitting copies of both their driving license and paper counterpart for scrutiny by the company works well and is not an issue for our members.

Further, we note the statement within the latest legal advice; “if your members do not provide consent, I suspect that the company will not be able to implement its proposals unless the information can be obtained from an unrestricted source.” We note the current system already provides the information required.

Accordingly, we instruct the General Secretary to write to Network Rail and inform them that we will be advising our members accordingly, explaining that should they so wish, they do not have to give the company permission to pass on their driving license details to be electronically held by a third party.

Network Rail members to be advised via email.

Branches and Regional Councils to be advised.

Please bring the contents of this circular to the attention of relevant members.